Spring ISD students came back to school this week, and the freshmen of Westfield High School had a new ninth grade-center to welcome them.
Westfield High School Principal David Mason said the ninth-grade center is a place the district created so their freshmen can be in one building and become used to the culture of high school without having the distraction of being with upperclassmen.
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“It gives them a chance to slow down and really focus on being ninth graders,” Mason said.
The ninth-grade center includes additional classrooms for freshmen, as well as a renovated gym where they will hold freshmen sports competitions, Mason said. The center also has a dance room for their cheerleaders and performance and visual arts students, and a media center focused on audio and visual production, along with screening rooms. Upperclassmen taking certain elective courses will also get to benefit from the facility.
“Any upper grade level students will go there to experience the state-of-the-art media and technology center,” Mason said.
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Along with providing a space for freshmen, Mason said there was a need for additional space at the school due to their growing student population.
“I’m really happy the district went with creating ninth-grade centers versus creating portables,” Mason said. “We had a few classes in portables but creating the ninth-grade center allows us to pull kids into buildings, which is a lot safer.”
All COVID-19 protocols are in place in the ninth-grade center as well, Mason said, with social distancing enforced. The use of additional space also allows there to be fewer people together in the same area on the main campus.
This renovated ninth-grade center, Mason said, had originally served as a ninth-grade center for Westfield before becoming a middle school campus for Bammel Middle School and later Roberson Middle School. Its latest transformation was part of Spring ISD’s 2016 bond measure to address facility, technology and safety needs around the district.
“I feel like this is the culmination of that bond,” Mason said. “It’s the best thing that happened out of that bond.”
Assistant Principal Rasheda Malveaux said she was excited to be starting her first year as assistant principal in the new ninth-grade center at the high school where she graduated.
“I’m a product of this school district, so I’ve been here to see this be Bammel Middle School and Roberson, and now you can’t even recognize what this building used to look like,” Malveaux said. “They’ve really put a lot of thought into this building and it’s amazing.”
Sophomore Moises Rodriguez is taking an audio and video production class in the ninth-grade center, and said he was amazed at seeing everything in the building.
“It looks futuristic, is how to put it,” Rodriguez said. “And it looks cool because of all the black and red, which are the colors this school is known for.”
Nykia Whiteside, a science instructional specialist at Westfield, said the ninth-grade center would help freshmen build a strong culture of learning and would promote student safety during the pandemic.
“The classrooms here are much larger,” she said. “When this was designed, COVID was not in the picture, but the forethought that went into the spacing in the rooms that the teachers have, it really lends itself to the social distancing that’s needed.”
paul.wedding@hcnonline.com
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January 09, 2021 at 02:00AM
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Westfield High School welcomes freshmen to new ninth-grade center - Houston Chronicle
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